Marine veteran chases down burglar of his Salem home

SALEM -- A Marine Corps veteran is sporting two black eyes and bruised ribs after he chased down and nearly caught a man he believed to have broke into his Salem home over the weekend.

Douglas Warden, 43, woke up around 1:20 a.m. Sunday and said he noticed a cell phone, coffee maker, some clothes and a picture of his daughter were missing. He stepped outside and saw a man duck around the corner of a nearby house and race down an alley. Warden jumped two fences and tackled the man. Warden said he had the suspect in a choke hold, but the man tried to gouge his left eye out with his thumb, so he let him go.

"It was quite a fight," said Warden, who served in the Marines for six years.

The man continued down the alley. Warden had seen a strange bicycle parked outside his house, so he figured the suspect would return. The man looped around the block, and Warden was waiting for him -- this time with a shovel. During the tussle, neighbors called 911 and the suspect slipped away again.

After the suspect got away, police joined the pursuit with a police dog. They arrested Rusty Weston, 42, who has no known address, a few blocks from the scene. Weston is being held without bail at Marion County Jail.

The incident appears random, said Salem police Sgt. Jeff Barratt.

Warden says he was puzzled why the man would break into his home and take such a random array of items. But he considers the wounds he suffered badges of courage.

"I did something good, taking someone off the street who shouldn't have been" there, Warden said. "What if he had done that to an old lady or broken into a house with a mother and kids?"

However, Salem police don't recommend that residents attempt to confront an intruder. People who come across a prowler in their home should call 911, they advise.